This invention relates to apparatus for automatically detecting parturition of a pregnant livestock or zoological animal and, more specifically, in one aspect to a light-sensitive device which may be inserted and held within the birth canal of a pregnant animal which, upon expulsion by a fetus at parturition, provides a remotely dicsernible signal and, in a second aspect, to a device which may be inserted and held within the birth canal of a pregnant animal which, upon expulsion therefrom, provides a sonic or ultrasonic tone which is remotely received by apparatus which includes means to automatically alert remotely located attendants whereby they may be summoned from other duties to aid the animal and its offspring as needed.
In the business of raising and breeding livestock or in zoological activities, it is often desirable for someone to be in attendance at, or soon following, the birth of certain animals since medical attention and assistance is often required by the mother and/or her offspring. Apparatus to detect the onset of delivery and automatically alert a remotely located attendant have taken forms which include devices inserted into the birth canal of a pregnant animal for actuation upon expulsion by a fetus at parturition. An example of such a device may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,687, issued to Hamaguchi et al on June 7, 1977. In one embodiment, the Hamaguchi device uses electrodes which are short-circuited by the body of the animal when inserted into the birth canal to achieve a non-actuated condition. When expelled by a fetus at parturition, the short-circuit ceases to exist whereupon a buzzer integral to the inserted device is triggered to alert the attendant. In this embodiment, it is clear that the attendant must be within an audible range of the buzzer and must therefore not be absent from the immediate area of the birth place. It is also conceivable that upon ejection, the device may encounter other matter extraneous yet adjacent to the animal which would unintentionally short-circuit the device and render it useless. In a second embodiment, a radio transmitter is inserted into the birth canal of the animal. Upon expulsion by a fetus, the transmitter emits signals at a predetermined frequency which are received by a fixed receiver to activate a buzzer positioned within an audible range of an attendant.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a device which will automatically detect parturition of a pregnant livestock or zoological animal to alert an attendant located a significant distance from the place of birth.
It is another object to provide such a device which is easily inserted into the birth canal of a pregnant livestock or zoological animal and which is activated upon expulsion by a fetus passing through the birth canal at parturition.
It is still another object to provide such a device which is dormant while in the dark birth canal yet activates a discernible signal upon expulsion from the birth canal due to a higher level of brightness impinging upon the expelled device.
It is a further object to provide such a device which includes means to emit a sonic or ultrasonic tone upon expulsion by a fetus, the tone being remotely received by apparatus which includes means to activate any of a variety of known alerting devices such as a radio paging system, for example.
It is still a further object to provide such a device which is easy to manufacture, economical and extremely reliable.
Other objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.